If you are passionate about helping people regarding sexual issues, or you know that you want to make sexuality your niche, then you should consider AASECT certification. Here at The Buehler Institute, we primarily assist those interested in certification as a sex therapist (for mental health clinicians) or a sexuality counselor (for allied professionals like healthcare providers or members of the clergy). AASECT also certifies sexuality educators. You can read more about each type of certification on AASECT's website.

AASECT certification requires you to attain a thorough foundation of study and clinical or fieldwork so that you can provide competent and ethical services concerning sexuality. Other professionals respect AASECT certified professionals as being experts in the field.

First, you will need to be a member of AASECT. You can read about membership benefits on the AASECT site. Second, you will need to attain education in core knowledge areas and practice areas. All certifications require 90 hours of core knowledge and additional educational hours in the area of specialization. You will need to take a 14-hour experiential workshop called a SAR, or Sexual Attitude Reassessment. And you will need to complete a designated number of hours of supervision and fieldwork as follows: 50 hours of supervision and 300 clinical hours for sex therapists; 30 hours of supervision and 100 hours of supervision for sexuality counselors. We recommend that you watch Dr. Buehler’s free recorded presentation or attend a free live workshop regarding the certification process where you can ask questions about this process; find this on the course catalog page.

The Buehler Institute was founded by psychologist and AASECT Certified Sex Therapist/Supervisor Dr. Stephanie Buehler. Dr. Buehler called her practice an “Institute” because she knew teaching others would be a major part of her career as a psychologist. The Buehler Institute offers continuing education opportunities primarily for postgraduate professionals, although graduate students are welcome to attend courses.

The Buehler Institute is approved to offer continuing education by the APA, NBCC, California BRN, and of course, AASECT. Every license and state have different requirements, so we recommend contacting your licensing board just to be sure.

The truth is that there is no law requiring anyone to have AASECT certification to practice. And, at The Buehler Institute, we believe that every mental health professional and wellness provider needs to be able to address sexual issues with their clients. However, if you want to make human sexuality the center post of your career, then we highly recommend that you undergo the process of becoming AASECT certified.

AASECT maintains a list of supervisors on the AASECT website, and we are happy to provide additional guidance to those enrolled in one of our programs. There are supervisors for each area of certification, though there can be some overlap, i.e., a sex therapy supervisor can supervise a sexuality counselor. You may want to hang out on the listserv or visit the websites of various supervisors to get a feeling for how they work.